While the story or post-apocalyptic theme of Enslaved appear to lack originality, both come with some interesting conceits. It's loosely based on the Chinese fable Journey To The West, which has seen adaptations in Dragon Ball and TV series Monkey, the latter of which was actually a starting point for the project and inspiration of the game's lead. The story follows Monkey and Trip, a pair of survivors in a future where war has dwindled humanity's populations to the mere thousands. After surviving capture on an airship that crash lands in an overgrown New York City, Trip holds Monkey hostage by planting a deadly headband on him. In need of a bodyguard, the device will crush Monkey's skull if Trip dies, so it's up to Monkey to keep her safe as they escape the city and travel to her homeland in the west.

Instead of an oppressive grey and brown world seen in most end of the world scenarios, here vacant cities are filled with lush vegetation, bright blue skies and bustling robots left over from the war effort 150 years prior. Signs of the old world are apparent in graffiti and billboards draped across buildings, drip feeding hints of the politics and strife that transpired in humanity's final few years. Like so many stories that use the Big Apple to resonate with its audience, Enslaved does its fair share of landmark drops, with the daring airship escape scene (which also acts as the opening tutorial) flying over the dilapidated Empire State Building and Statue of Liberty - while Monkey hangs on for dear life as the vessel billows with smoke - before crash landing right beside Grand Central Station, its façade battered by a century’s weathering and covered in at think layer of vines. It's a unique and gorgeous representation.

Advertisement - Continue Reading Below

While you'll be spending most of your time controlling the muscular, brash Monkey throughout the game, you can make use of Trip's technological know-how to sneak past the robots that continue to lurk and stalk humans inside the decayed metropolis. Monkey can whip out his staff and brawl one-and-one with lone sentries with responsive and fast-paced God Of War style combat, but many situations have gun-totting droids on far ledges that make such a tactic deadly. You can request help from Trip to create distractions with holograms to draw away fire, which will then give Monkey breathing room to leap across ledges to take out the danger head-on.

Trip will mainly linger close behind as you explore, giving out incidental dialogue, and when far away, can be commanded using a radial wheel to tell her that the coast is clear. Part way through the city a field of mines blocks their path, so she asks Monkey to grab hold of a dragonfly - a cleverly disguised flying CCTV camera - which will let the duo locate and subsequently avoid the explosives, with Monkey giving his captor a piggy-back ride to safety. A later nod to the TV series has Monkey deploy his 'cloud' - a free roaming hover disc - allowing him to travel across the Hudson River and connect platforms for Trip to progress. While the aim to ensure she remains safe, Trip doesn't require hand holding or specific protection in dangerous situations. Ninja Theory hopes to emulate both Ico and Another World as titles that successfully build themselves around the often difficult escort dynamic, using the buddy as an asset for progression rather than a hindrance.

Although their partnership is initially forced, Monkey and Trip soon relax and learn to work together as the tale unfolds, and there are hints that their frosty relationship will eventually blossom into something more. Cutscenes are easily the game's strongest suit; using performance capture first pioneered in Heavenly Sword and recently seen in the likes of Avatar and Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, performers act and voice their characters at the same time, providing an authentic interaction and spontaneity between the two leads, helped further by rich details in facial and body movements. Ninja Theory has once again deployed the use of Andy Serkis of Lord Of The Rings and King Kong, and while the resemblance is strong in terms of appearance, he's more than convincing enough as the crass, snappy Monkey.

While the quality of Naughty Dog's adventure is paralleled in these cutscenes, at this stage other aspects aren't quite as honed. The animation outside of these scenes is well done but not quite at the same standard, and the gameplay - which has Monkey quickly climbing and leaping across walls and ledges in the same auto-pilot fashion as Nathan Drake - isn't as well directed, leading to a few points of confusion of where to go even within the opening tutorial sections. But the game has still to go gold, so a few weeks of polish may tune these aspects a little more.

While putting Enslaved up against Uncharted as a basis for comparison may seem harsh, it's actually a credit to the game's potential. It's deceptively original in setting and tone, with a city environment that was filled with a fresh colour palette and subtle details, and combat and pacing that offers a mix of old-school combos and strategic assaults on enemy positions. Provided the title keeps Trip as an engaging personality and pivotal tool in exploration throughout the adventure, and not a bane that we've seen in so many escort sections over the years, then Namco's backing of the title might not seem so surprising after all.

Enslaved: Odyssey To The West will be released for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 on October 8.